Leo's Choice
by InkSpatteredHands
Summary: Leo must make the decision between staying or leaving the Seven. Please rate and review!


**I would like to own the Heroes of Olympus series, but nope. Oh well. Anyways, here we go!**

Leo Valdez had run from six different foster homes, and the rule was always the same. Don't get attached, don't tell them anything about yourself, and agree with them when you can.

He had thought he had found a good place with his friends at Camp Half Blood, but his gut told him otherwise.

He took a deep breath.

"It's probably just another monster trying to kill me, nothing out of the usual." He said out loud to himself.

Still, if it was a monster, wouldn't it have tried to take over his brain already?

This seemed different.

And in the past, his gut had never proven him wrong.

He made a list of everyone on the Argo II.

If everyone was annoyed with him, then he'd leave. That was the rule. First on the list was Coach Hedge.

Leo crossed him off easily. The old goat ( **pun intended** ) always seemed to be annoyed with everyone. Next on the list was Jason. Hmm..

He recalled a time earlier in the week, when he was repairing the Argo II's mast after yesterday's attack.

 _Jason had strolled onto the deck. "Hey Jason!" Leo called. Jason looked up. "Oh hey Leo. You're just the guy I'm looking for."_

 _Leo's spirits lifted. "I was wondering if you could repair my gladius (_ _ **sword**_ _). It's got a couple dents in the blade."_

 _Leo frowned. Jason looked at him expectantly._

 _"Sure, anything for you Sparky!" Leo plastered a fake smile on his face. Jason tossed him the sword._

 _Leo reached out to catch it, but was too slow and it clattered on the deck._

 _Jason started walking off. Leo picked up the sword. "Jason?" He called._

 _"Yeah?"_

 _I was, um, wondering if you wanted to hang out later or something?"_

 _Jason stared at him. "We are in the middle of a war Leo, I don't have time. I'm trying to get ready for upcoming battles. And you should too."_

 _Then he walked off. Leo swallowed the lump in his throat._

 _"Yeah Leo, Jason's probably got something more important to do then hang with a annoying Latino demigod." he told himself._

 _He stared at his reflection on the sword. A frown adorned his lips. He pushed the corners of his mouth into a smile._

 _"There we go. No more sad Leo!" He told himself. A fake laugh came out. He checked his reflection again. Pools of sadness still lingered in his eyes._

 _Oh well. Leo started making his way towards the engine room to start buffing out the scratches and dents in the gladius._

He crossed Jason's name off the list. Yup, Jason didn't really want anything to do with him, and he was more interested in hanging out with Piper then his old buddy Leo. Next on the list… Pipes.

Last week, in the dining room

" _So what's the plan for defeating Gaia?" Annabeth asked. "Well, it's pretty sedimentary, my dear Watson."_

 _Leo cracked. They all looked funnily at him. Piper raised an eyebrow._

 _Leo started to sweat. "You know, sedimentary because we are battling Gaia and she's earth and earth has sedimentary rocks? I know it's a far stretch but is it really that bad?"_

 _Piper frowned at him. "Leo, unless you have a plan for defeating Gaia that involves sedimentary rocks, can you please shut up? We're trying to talk."_

 _Hazel raised an eyebrow at the harshness in Piper's tone._

 _"Ok…" Leo said softly. The weight on his shoulders seemed to be a bit heavier. A tiny corner of his heart ripped._

Yup, Piper didn't want him around either. He scratched her name off of the list. Next was Percy and Annabeth. He quickly scratched Annabeth's name off of his list.

She was just plain scary, plus she hated his jokes.

Who in the world hated Leo's jokes? He was the supreme joke commander.

Percy seemed to care about everyone on the ship, but it was like trying to cut a tiny cake into slices. Not enough to go around.

Frank and Hazel were easy to eliminate. Frank didn't like him in general, and Hazel just thought of him as Sammy, which was frankly, quite weird.

That was everyone. A curl of sadness mixed with the urgency to leave in his gut. Maybe it was time to leave.

He walked to his room, which was a mess, as usual. Near the door was his old backpack, ready to go, filled with the necessary supplies. He picked it up tentatively. Do I really want to do this? He asked himself. Yes. He told himself. He slipped it around his shoulders. Just the right weight. He walked over to his desktop, and started writing a note to his… companions.

He placed the note on his desk. When and if they came looking for him, they would find the note. He had one more goodbye to say. Festus.

Festus was too heavy to come along, and would also be a constant reminder of his time on the Argo II. He walked up to the front of the ship, all ready to go. Festus creaked a hello. "Hey buddy." Leo faced Festus. "I'm leaving… for a long time… I need you to take care of everybody okay?"

He choked down a lump in his throat. Festus creaked again. Leo nodded. "Of course bud. Well… take care okay?" He placed his hand on Festus's forehead, enjoying the feel of the metal and heat, even if the warmth couldn't burn him.

He took his hand off of the metal dragons forehead, and started to walk off the ship. Festus's creaking became more frantic. Leo goofily waved, just in case anyone saw them. He took a last glance of the ship and stepped off the gangplank. "Bye…" he whispered. "...Forever."

And then he did the only thing he was good at. Running away.

 **Wow, that was kind of depressing. I was feeling kind of sad when I wrote this… Anyways, please rate and review! Sorry this wasn't very long, I just wrote it really quickly. Constructive criticism is appreciated, but all out dissing is not. Thank you, and have a spindiddly day!**


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